Sugar Talk
by Namikaze Nara
Summary: Just a nice chat over tea and cakes.


The white cloud that covering the brown surface, stirring following the movements of the giant steel that moved in a circle, creating a sort of typhoon within it.

That's the impression Maribel Hearn gets as she watching her espresso while stirring it with her tea spoon and could not help but asking the question. Why is someone ever invented milk-coffee?

Coffee is black and bitter, while milk is white and sweet. Her friend once said that coffee better take as it is, black and bitter, like her heart. She still didn't understand why she jokes about her heart being black and bitter, but just chalk it up as the uniqueness of her friend.

Back to the topic, coffee is bitter, that's why people put something like sugar or milk to sweeten it. However, if they didn't want bitter drink and preferred sweet one, why didn't drink milk instead of combine them? Why bother combine two existence that is completely the opposite of each other?

"You really should stop day-dreaming in public places, Merry." A voice cut her before she could reach any plausible conclusion. Maribel raised her head to look at the very person she has been waiting for the better part of the hour.

"You're late." Maribel said, crossing her hands after her friend took a sit and ordered her order, which predictably a cup of black coffee. "Really, you should stop drinking coffee every time Renko, it isn't healthy."

"Don't worry, I have strong stomach. And besides, I need it to make my brain works; it does wonders for my nervous system." Her friend whined while placing her head in her right palm, the gesture she always do whenever she's tired. Maribel realizes her friend must have been pulling another all-nighter last night despite her warning.

"That's why I told you to sleep and wake earlier, you really need to stop those habits of waking up late in the night Renko, you will get sick if you forcing your body too hard like this." Maribel scowled, her face morphed in worry and displeasure. At the very least her friend have the grace of looking sheepish, rubbing her back neck while smiling awkwardly.

"I have an assignment that due today." She replied. Maribel remember her friend talking about having an assignment last week, and reminded that her friend is indeed have the habit of procrastinating her assignment to the last minutes, sometimes literally seconds.

"That's because you procrastinate it until the last possible moments." Maribel scolded her friend with a sigh.

Maribel could not help to wondering how many times she have to reprimand her friend for her bad habits, she just have too much of it.

"Speaking of being late, isn't you ever wondered why the Hiroshige train intentionally made so it's arrive in 53 minutes even though they could made it faster?" Her friend suddenly said, ignoring her warning. Maribel let out another sigh before deciding to entertain her friend for a bit. She tilted her head while sipping her espresso to consider her answer.

"It's so the one who want to arrive faster would take Tokaido Shinkansen instead?" She answered back, and her friend took a pause to nimble the cookies Maribel ordered before her friend arrived, not that Maribel minds it.

"That's one reason, I suppose." Her friend replied hesitantly, and Maribel realized that's not the answer her friend looking for, but couldn't diffuse it anyway.

Maribel couldn't stop the slightest quirk in her lips for that thought.

"But I think it's a message. There's a drawback from the advancement of the technology, it makes everyone so busy these days. It's like watching ants fighting against time to collect as much foods before winter." Her friend paused to give a nod of gratitude to the waitress who brings her coffee, before said waitress walk away.

"Where am I? Ah yes," Her friend continued after sipping her bitter coffee. "These days, peoples have rarely took a break from working, even going as far as working for twenty hours, that's why they usually took their times in their travel as a means to rest.

"20 minutes is the most effective times for nap. Let's take 15 minutes to get you in a good position before falling to sleep, and 10 minutes to cast away the grogginess. That way you will have eight minutes to prepare yourself to getting off the train."

Maribel humming in thought while tilting her head. She didn't thought of it that way, thinking it's actually just a business strategy of the train company, but her friend does make a point, biased as it might. However, she knows her friend long enough to know the reason of this topic in the first place.

"That's an interesting way to see things, but I have something that I would like to tell you, Renko. My first point is, I agree with your outlook to take things easier, but I want to spend that time with YOU, Renko." She said, placing her head to her palms while watching her friend glancing at the window in nervousness.

"And my second point is more of a question. Do you really think you could make me close my eyes for making me waiting for almost an hour in this café, alone?" she demanded, and her friend let out an awkward laugh while rubbing her back neck.

"I'm sorry." She finally said, and Maribel remind herself to make her friend stop making elaborate excuses that involved on something complicated just to divert her attention away from her friend mistakes.

On second thought, no, Maribel wouldn't stop her. Usami Renko is at her brightest when she began explaining something for her, and while she will not said it out loud, she wouldn't exchange it for anything, even if she had to wait for an hour for her friend.

"You should say that from the start." That didn't stop Maribel from scolding her friend however, Renko is just too cute when nervous for her to resist to tease her.

Maribel couldn't stop the smile at the thought.

CREDIT TO: Four-Dimension Sugar Talk, Jirufun.


End file.
